


Movies and Naps

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Lazy Saturday [9]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 15:37:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11466528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: Both Mal and Regina are sick, and Mal stumbles upon Charlize Theron's Evil Queen while flipping through the channels.





	Movies and Naps

Regina sighs as her jaw tenses and she looks sharply to Mal at the other end of the sofa, remote in hand and flipping through the channels.

They don’t usually spend their afternoons this way, but it’s the way they’ve spent the last several. It started with Henry and spread to Mal, and almost as soon as she’d started to sniffle and complain of a scratchy throat, Regina felt that familiar itch in her eyes that told her she’d be next. And though the worst was behind them all, they still didn’t quite feel up to their usual routines.

She takes a breath and looks to the TV screen, her eyes sinking shut as the image on the screen changes for what seems like the thousandth time in the last few minutes.

“You know,” she begins, trying in vain to keep her voice even. “It might be easier to settle on something if you watched for more than a half of a second.”

Mal’s blue eyes widen a bit as she looks away. “You sound annoyed.”

“I am,” she plainly admits. “The whole point of us sitting here with the TV on is to  _watch_ it and distract ourselves for a little while.” Mal shrugs and looks away, muttering something enjoying the flashing colors and Regina’s eyes roll as she flips the channel a few more times.

“Here,” she says, stopping at a random place before dropping the remote in her lap. “We’ll watch this.”

Regina blinks a couple of times as her eyes focus on a blonde woman sitting on a throne in a metallic silver dress and metal crown–and she stifles her urge to groan. “We… don’t have to watch  _this_.”

“But you said to just pick something.”

“Yes, but…” Her voice trails off as as she draws in a breath. “Not this.”

Mal’s eyes narrow and a grin tugs onto her lips, noting Regina’s obvious bristling. She lifts the remote, staring intently as the queen on screen lifts her chin in a haughty yet icy way, and her grin brightens when she finds the button she’d been searching for–the button that will tell her the title whatever is playing on the screen.

Mal gasps as the title–Snow White and the Huntsman–appears on the screen and briefly, her eyes shift to Regina, watching as she tips up her chin in indignation. “Oh,” she breathes out. “That’s  _you_.”

“No,” Regina says too quickly. “That’s not me. It’s… a caricature of me.”

A soft snicker escapes her a she reads the summary of the movie. “They’ve called you Raveena.” She bites down on her lip as she looks to Regina, losing a battle against herself not to laugh. “It’s so close to Regina… yet so far.”

“It’s not, actually. None of the details are right.”

“It could be worse,” Mal says, in a voice that’s supposed to be soothing, but comes out as teasing. “Other versions of this story call you  _Grimhilde_.” Regina’s eyes widen and her lips part as Mal laughs again. “And if given a choice between the two, I’d prefer to be called Raveena.”

Regina’s eyes roll as her arms cross over her chest as she looks to the screen. “They all got it wrong,” she scoffs. “To make everything that happened to have been over something so… trivial.”

“Oh,” Mal murmurs, softening as she stretches out her foot and rubs it over Regina’s ankle. “I didn’t…”

“Every version of that story paints me as some vapid…” She sighs. “Nevermind.”

“They all ignore your broken heart and how they all treated you… and,” a lopsided grin tugs up at the corners of her mouth, “I don’t know about this one, but in that other version there’s no mention of the torrid love affair you had with a misunderstood dragon.”

Regina looks up, watching as Mal once more lifts the remote, this time turning off the TV. “I thought you wanted to watch it.”

“No,” Mal sighs looking from the darkened screen to Regina. “I don’t need to watch. I know the story. I got to witness the original… from varying distances.” She grins as her foot slides from Regina’s ankle to her calf. “That’s the version of the story I prefer–the one with my sad-eyed queen who only wanted to be loved.”

“Is that so?”

Mal smiles as she sits up. “Yes, because even though it took far too long–certainly far longer than a particular dragon would have like–in that version, the queen found love.”

Regina blinks at her for a moment, staring blankly–and then a grin starts to form. “That’s true. She did.” Leaning forward, Mal stretches out in Regina’s direction, her hands settling on either side of her hips. She smiles as Regina’s eyes fall to her lips and she pushes herself forward so that she hovers over her. “You’re… sure you don’t want to watch the movie?”

“Positive.”

“Because…”

“Queen Raveena might be beautiful and she might be cunning, but she’s a poor substitute for the real deal.” Regina laughs a little, turning her face away as it reddens and she sniffles, and Mal’s lips press to her jaw as she shifts herself to Regina’s side. Her arm wraps loosely around her and Regina turns a little, catching her lips momentarily before resting her head on her shoulder–and then, it’s not before long that they’ve fallen asleep.


End file.
